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This article is called Competitive Intelligence creates more certainty that you have the right answer. Imagine walking down a dimly lit street. On your own, in a city. A place you don’t know. It’s a cold autumn night in this former Eastern Bloc capital. You can clearly see things near the single street light. And it’s the only light working in the street. But some objects are much harder to see. And other things cant be seen at all. These facts are something you can be 100% certain about. You know you don’t know. Think about the next and future actions you need to take. Determine what options you have. As you know, to make a good decision you have to ask good questions. Even in a dark street overlooked by even darker watching windows, there’s still a lot of data out there. To comprehend and to use. To help answer the question. If you don’t ask good questions, you will waste a lot of time and effort. You will make ill-informed decisions, and the right actions will not be taken. It’s time to look ahead, figure out your decision and ask the right questions. Cast in a shadow So back to the street. Most things are cast in a shadow. You can’t see anything clearly. And what you think you can see depends on what you think you are looking at. Where they are in relation to you. And your knowledge of how a typical street is laid out. You know where you are. That’s for certain. Certainty is what people use to learn stuff and to determine what they know. But how will you find what you are looking for? Without bumping into something or someone, you don’t want to? What is Competitive Intelligence Competitive intelligence is the finding, sorting and critical analysis of information. To make sense of what’s happening and why. Predict what’s going to happen and give the options to help you control the outcome. Competitive intelligence offers certainty, competitive advantage, insight, growth & security. Before arriving in the city, an expert has told you the layout by an expert. A database may say that streets are like this are 80% of the time. Ans have this and that within the street. Understand your own knowledge limitations Good Competitive intelligence skills include the ability to understand your own knowledge limitations. To have the sense to be cautious when you don’t know very much. And to be more confident when you know a lot. To listen to the experts, read all the old data. Then look at the evidence to create your options. Certainty is one of the rarest gems in the world. We are always making decisions and passing down judgments on partial information. Determining how certain you are about the information to decide on is an important skill. Some certainties have inbuilt in us, passed down from the dawn of time. By out instinct and parents. The certainty, like when you put a hand in the fire, its going to hurt. We will rarely achieve certainty Most of us will rarely achieve certainty, and we often make poor decisions. As they say, there are three certainties in life. Death, taxes and Germany winning penalty shootouts. A meaningful skill is to extend your certainty database a single piece at a time. Evaluating certainty levels based on information received with the resultant actions. The more certain you are, the more confident you are. And the more confident you are, the more likely you are to take calculated risks. If you are uncertain, you’ll find it hard to understand the information before you. And with a dose of positive thinking added, it usually breeds overconfidence. Convincing yourself that your course of action is the correct one. Or, with a lack of confidence, we are unable to make decisions and frustration kicks in. Identify relevant pieces of information To tackle the certainty problem is to identify relevant pieces of information. Then collate them into the problem to be faced. Going back into that dimly lit street. And your desire to walk down it to find what you are looking for. How do you get the shadows on your side? Competitive Intelligence helps you with certainty and, in turn, with risk assessment. It could also suggest going down the street the next morning or carry a big stick. Conclusion Competitive Intelligence creates more certainty that you have the right answer. This was called Competitive Intelligence creates more certainty that you have the right answer. It described how we all need as much certainty as possible to find the answers. The answers to give us options. But sometimes, more certainty can be found by switching on the light. So, what are you uncertain about?
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